Recently Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Enhancing User Experience (UX) in Admin Panels: Integrate a "Recently Viewed" feature to reduce friction for power users (e.g., admins, editors) by surfacing frequently accessed records without manual navigation. Aligns with Filament’s goal of building intuitive admin interfaces.
• Productivity Tools for Internal Teams: Justify inclusion as a time-saver for teams managing high-volume content (e.g., e-commerce catalogs, SaaS dashboards). Quantify potential gains (e.g., "reduces 20% of admin panel clicks").
• Roadmap for "Smart Defaults": Build toward a broader personalization layer (e.g., combining with Filament’s existing features like bookmarks or favorites). This package is a foundational block for future "AI-assisted navigation" or collaborative workspaces.
• Build vs. Buy: Avoid custom development for a low-effort, high-impact feature. The package handles caching, UI integration, and Filament compatibility—reducing dev time by ~3–5 days.
• Use Cases:
  • Content-heavy platforms (e.g., CMS, marketplaces) where users toggle between records.
  • SaaS tools with multi-tenant dashboards needing role-based recent-item visibility.
  • Internal tools where admins frequently audit or edit records (e.g., support tickets, user profiles).

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • Your Filament panel (v3–5.x) lacks native "recently viewed" functionality and users complain about navigation inefficiency.
  • You prioritize quick wins with minimal dev overhead (installation + CSS tweaks).
  • Your team uses custom themes (required for styling integration).
  • Analytics show high frequency of record-switching (e.g., >50 views/session).

• Look elsewhere if:

  • You need cross-platform recent items (e.g., syncing with mobile apps or external systems)—this is Filament-specific.
  • Your use case requires advanced filtering (e.g., team-wide recents, time-based decay)—may need custom logic.
  • You’re using Filament v2 or below (incompatible).
  • Your team lacks CSS customization bandwidth (theme setup is mandatory).
  • You anticipate high-scale usage (e.g., 100K+ daily views)—package may need caching optimizations.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This package lets our Filament admin panel remember which records users frequently access, cutting navigation time by surfacing recent items in a single click. For example, a support team could instantly revisit the last 5 customer tickets without searching. It’s a 2-hour setup with a measurable UX boost—ideal for teams bogged down by manual record-hopping. MIT-licensed and maintained, with zero long-term costs."

For Engineering: *"The awcodes/recently package plugs into Filament panels to track and display recently viewed records with minimal code. Key benefits:

• Zero backend logic: Handles caching and UI via Filament’s event system.
• Theme-aware: Works with custom Filament themes (required for styling).
• Version-aligned: Supports Filament 3–5.x with clear upgrade paths.
• Extensible: Hooks for customizing what’s tracked (e.g., exclude soft-deleted models). Tradeoff: Requires adding the package’s CSS to your theme. Recommended for projects where admin efficiency is a pain point."*